Airline crew 'risk ill health'

Those who frequently travel long distances aboard airlines risk negative health effects, according to scientists.

A team at Liverpool John Moores University looked at more than 500 articles about flying and health in order to arrive at their conclusions.

In addition to jet lag, cabin crew members reported menstrual irregularities and gastrointestinal illnesses, as well as mental health problems such as moodiness and even brief psychotic episodes, the study reveals.

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Interruptions to sleep cycles and hormonal patterns when travelling across times zones are cited by the researchers as the primary causes of the reported problems.

Lead author professor Jim Waterhouse wrote: "Deficits of cognitive performance and increases in psychotic and major affective disorders have also been described.

"Such effects have not been reported in healthy travellers whose experience of time zone transitions is far less extensive than those who regularly travel long distances."

For each time zone crossed, it takes about a day to recover, according to the NHS.

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